Welcome to Rutledge's
by Gwenevere Knightley
Summary: Sanity lost, sanity regained. Hopefully what will be my telling of the third alice tale. Please R and R!


~;@ Welcome to Rutledge's @;~  
  
Alice lay on the starched sheets of the iron bed as a nurse presented her with a battered white toy, it was rabbit. long worn and weary. soot blacked. smoke. Flame. Fire. She shuddered, feeling the charred fur against her bare arm. Why had they given her this? She glared up with green eyes to the ceiling, full of hate and grief. Tight bandages encircled her wrists and the faint smell of electricity hung in the damp air. Light from the paned window shone across her. across the stark white tiles, white walls, white floor. Clinical. Cold. She stared remorselessly up at the ceiling, her head throbbing with pain and confused thoughts. She had she survived. And that dratted feline. It was her fault. It was the cat's fault her family died in that fire. She tried to convince herself, when really it was her. Alice lost in her own little wonderland. Had caused this. The loss of family and the loss of her sanity. If she'd have dragged herself from that place, she could have saved them. Not let them die in an inferno of incredible horror. Wonderland, she'd lost that too. Everything had gone. She was alone. Stuck in an asylum with only a charred rabbit for company. She blinked, the nurses muttered around her. Discussing her, discussing her fate. Her own imagination had caused her loved ones to die. Her own madness had caused this. She blinked again, and a tear escaped from the nightmarish green eyes. A nurse looked at her, and she stared past them. The same silent expression she'd worn since she was institionalised. Quarantined. Rutledge's wasn't an asylum, she thought, it was Hell.  
  
A picture of a glass phial flicked before her eyes, a shattered pocket watch. All in her tormented mind. Drink me. Flames flicked at the corner of her eyes, burning away at the last fragments or her sanity. A voice broke the silence in her mind.  
  
'Save my world and save your soul. You pretty little girl.'  
  
It's all changed  
  
Alice's eyes flickered open; the room was bathed in darkness - almost. Immediately before her, was the illumination from two lamp like eyes. She felt a weight on her chest and warm, foul breath on her face. Perfectly still, she tried to fathom what the weight on her was, there wasn't much of whatever it was, but it was there. The two eyes blinked, and it backed away to the end of the bed. 'Who are you?' she whispered, sitting up. But it had gone, or that she couldn't see it. 'Never you mind.' It replied, now standing at the other end of the room, by a long looking glass. Alice watched as the creature turned away from her and looked into the mirror, it's bright eyes reflected and shone in the grimy glass, making the creature appear to glow. From this, she realised. A Cat. It turned to face her, and grinned. A broad, leering smile - quite unnerving and unnatural. 'Oh Cheshire cat it's you!' she whispered, surprised.  
  
A light came on outside Alice's room, shining weak, grey light into the dark room, casting a harsh relief of the Cheshire cat against the far wall. Thin, Anorexic and cruelly twisted from the insanely happy plump feline of Alice's memory. This cat was far-gone, dead grey in colour and far from the realm it should reside in. 'You've become quite mangy cat.' she said, causing him to grin. 'But your grins' a comfort.' The cat came up to the bed, staring at her scornfully. It came close to her face, whiskers brushing her face. 'What do you want?' she asked, scared now. 'Save us Alice.' He replied, grinning manically at her. From outside the sound of her cell, a loud creak and the rustle of keys sounded as a nurse pushed open the door. The cat disappeared in a shot, leaving the only trace that he was there by sooty paw prints across her sheets and the floor. The orderly gasped as she saw Alice, eyes open. Sitting bolt upright in bed with a mixed expression on her face. 'Alice Dear! You're awake!' she exclaimed, rushing over. Alice stared past her, across to the mirror, unfazed. 'Alice? Alice Dear?' said the nurse, waving a bottle of smelling salts under Alice's nose. Alice turned to look at the nurse. 'I'm not comatose you know.' She said disdainfully. 'Oh course dear. Yes, quite right. Come child. Are you hungry? Are you tired?' she asked further unnecessary questions, which Alice ignored. 'No.' 'Then what is the matter child?' 'Nothing.'  
  
You're in for the Long haul  
  
'Alice. What is wrong?' asked the Physiatrist for the fifth time that session, each time he had received no response. Continually, Alice just stared past him, across to her grimy looking glass, watching her reflection stare as contemptuously back at her. He reached for his leather doctor's case and produced a long needle and filled it from a vial of clear fluid. 'Fine then, Alice. Give me your arm.' He said sternly, grabbing her wrist and flipping it over. Showing a thin line of red dots up her arm where the needle penetrated the skin. 'No.' whispered Alice, The Doctor looked up. 'Pardon?' 'I said No.' she replied, her voice edgy. 'Well you should have said that sooner child.' 'NO!' she screamed, pulling violently away from him, knocking over the chair and upsetting a shelf into the medicine cabinet, shattered numerous bottles and jars of treatments. 'Alice!' shouted the Doctor, letting go of the needle. Alice deftly reached for it and trust it into his neck, forcing all the contents right in the vein. He went very pale, and spluttered, sliding to the floor gurgling morosely. Alice gasped, breathing heavily and bolted for the door. 'Get her!' cried out one of the orderlies. Two large, brutish men in white coats caught hold of Alice's small frame and held her still, while the nurse went into the doctor's office. The nurse returned white as a sheet, regarding Alice with horrified surprised. 'Restrain her.' She ordered, watching as the orderlies tied her up in a stained straitjacket. 'And order someone to remove the doctor. She killed him.' Alice looked up from the ground; her emerald eyes met grey, as the nurse glared at the girl. 'Laudanum, right in the jugular. Not pleasant.' Sneered the nurse. 'Alice, You killed him you know. You killed him. He was trying to help you.' At the wave of a hand, the two orderlies carried Alice back to her room. 'Don't expect a fast recovery Child. You're in for the long haul.' Said the Nurse, as the twitching form of the doctor was carried out behind her, underneath a white sheet.  
  
It's all in the mind  
  
After several hours of opiate-induced slumber, Alice awoke groggy and confused in the dark of the early dawn. Returning her vigilance to stare at the grey splattered ceiling, she mused sporadically over yesterday's events. 'I killed him.' She breathed. 'I killed the Doctor. Just like. Like I.' She sobbed loudly as crystalline tears escaped from her eyes and dripped down the sheets, dull roaring of flame rose in her ears, although the only sounds were that of the inmates of the asylum and the pervading rain outside.  
  
'Get out Alice. Get out of the House! . Mum? Dad? Where are you? . Save yourself Alice! Go! . Alice! Get out! Go Please!' Followed by the agonising screams that haunted Alice for ten years past.  
  
Further tears freed themselves from Alice's eyes and poured down, the need for release, regret, self hatred, the wish for it all to end poured slid down Alice's pale cheek and onto the pillow beneath her head. The memories of the night of the fire flooded her mind in a hazy, flame-ridden horror of the night her parents died, of the night her world, her sanity, was stolen from the 7-year-old child. All her happy memories of the wonderland in her mind had gone cruelly twisted into nightmarish shadows of their formers selves.  
  
'Only a few find the way; some don't recognize it when they do; some don't ever want to.' whispered the dangerous, but distinctly feline voice of her sentinel visitor from the depths of the dark room. Alice blinked, searching with her eyes for the estranged feline. First the malicious grin appeared in the looking glass, followed by the anorexic body of the Cheshire act left the safe confines of the looking glass, leaving the tell tale sooty footprints of it's passing. 'Why must I suffer...?' 'Only the foolish think suffering is a just reward Alice. Save us Alice. Wonderland needs you.'  
  
Welcome back. 


End file.
